Typewriter platen shift lock release



2 Sheets-Sheet 1 July 27, 1937. G. F. HANDLl-:Y

TYPEWRITER PLATEN SHIFT LOCK RELEASE Filed Aug.. 26, 1956 July'271937- vG. F. l-IANDLEYl 1 2,088,086

TYPEWRITER PLATEN SHIFT LOCK RELEASE Filed Aug. 2e, 1936 2 sheets-smet 2El Ell...

ATTORNEYS `special shift release key Patented` July 27, 1937 UNITEDSTATE Fimir';

TYPEWRITER PLATEN YSHI'F'I' LOCK RELEASE Application August 26, 1936,Serial No. 98,025

7 Claims.

23, 1929, the shift lock key lever is held depressed by a locking latch,and in order to release the --latch from its engagement With the leverit is necessary for the operato-r to exert a decided downward pressureon said lever, The pressure necessary to release the latch is muchgreater than the staccato touch employed by the operator when depressingthe type bar key levers.

Among the several objects of my invention are to provide a typewritingmachine in which the shift lock key lever is releasable b-y the samekind of staccato touch as is employed in operating the type bar keylevers, and to locate therelease lever intermediate the type bar keylevers Whereby the release lever will be positioned in one of the banksor rows of keys and thereby effect a resultant increase in the speed ofoperation of the machine.

With these and other objects in view which Will more fully appear, thenature of the invention will be more clearly understood by following thedescription, the appended claims, and the several lviews illustrated inthe accompanying drawings.

In the drawings:

Figure l is a vertical longitudinal sectional view ,ing the specialshift release key lever and the segment shift lever fully depressed, andthe shift lock leverl of the locking latch in their normal positions;

Figure 4 is a detail view showing a modification employed in connectionwith the special shift release key lever when it is desired toi letterspace the carriage upon depression of said lever;

Figure 5 is ahorizontal view, p-artly in section, of the keyboard, andshowing particularly the lever and its associated parts;

Figure 6 is a detail section taken on the line @-5 of Figure 1;

Figure 7 isV an enlarged section taken on the Vline '1 -'i of Figure 1;

Figure 8 is a perspective view of the segment shift lever;

Figure 9 is a perspective View of the shift lock lever;

Figure 10 is a perspective View of the rocker `5 arm; and

Figure 11 is a perspective View of the special type bar. v

The invention is illustrated as being applied to a standar-d Royalmachine, although it will be 10 understood that it is capable of beingapplied toother typewriters.

The drawings disclose a portion of the main frame A, acarriage B havinga platen C thereon., and a shiftable segment D. The machine 15 includestype actions which include key levers F and a special release key leverF. All of these key levers F and F are fulcrumed at their rear ends on atransverse rod 5 supported by the main frame of the machine, the keylevers F being provided at their front ends with nger pieces ii and therelease key lever F being provided at itsifront end with a nger piecete. The finger pieces 6 are arranged in the usual rows or banks in thekey board, and the nger piece 5a of the 25 release key lever F ispreferably located in the first row or bank. Each key lever F and F isconnected by a link 'l to a front link 8 which is connected by a link 9to an intermediate lever l0 fulcrumed on a cross bracket i l carried bythe 30 main frame, the lever ill being connected by a link l2 to theheel of the associated type bar which is pivoted on the segment D. Thetype bar or pivoted arm E which is associated with the release key leverF is devoid of type as shown 35 Vin Figures 1 to 11, inclusive, andconstitutes a movable weighted element. A shift key lever Gr which islocated on the right hand side of the keyboard, has its rear end fixedto a transverse shaft i3 journaled on the sides 1li, l5 ofthe ma- 40chine frame A below the key levers F and F. A shift lever H which isalso fixed at its rear end to the shaft i3, is located on` the left handside of the keyboard. The rear end of the lever H terminates in anupwardly extending arm 16 to 45 wmch is pivoted at Il a bell crank leverhaving two arms i8 and i9. The arm i8 is adapted to be link-connected toa latch (not shown) for retaining the segment D in its upper position.The arm i8 is connected by a link 20 which in 50 turn is adjustablyconnected to a link 2i. The link 2l is connected to the vertical arm 22of a bell crank lever which is fulcrurned as at 23 on the machine frame,the horizontal arm 2li of said lever being connected to the segment Dthrough r the medium of a vertical thrust link 25, and a coil spring 25is connected to the arm 2i of said lever and to the machine frame. Itwill be apparent from the above that when the shift key lever isdepressed, the segment will be lowered against the tension of the spring26. rIhe shift lever H is provided with a rearwardly and downwardlyextending stop arm 2l adapted to Contact the bracket il to thereby limitthe downward movement of said lever.

Secured by a set screw 23 to the left hand end of the shaft i3 betweenthe shift vlever' l-Iand the machine wall lll, is a collar 2Q, andjournaled on this collar is the rear end of a shift lock key lever Ihaving a finger piece 30 iat its front end.

A shift locking member of latch J, of substantially U-shapedconstruction, has its rear leg 3i pivoted by a screw 32 to the wall itat a point in rear of key lever I, and has its front leg 33 disposedintermediate the pivot 32 and the nger piece 3G. The upper end of frontleg 33 is downwardly and forwardly inclined or cammed as at 3ft and isdisposed below and in direct contact with a roller 35 journaled on theshift lock key lever I. It will be noted that the legs 3l, 33 of thelatch J are offset, the rear leg il being located between the shift lockkey lever I and the wall lll of the machine frame, and the front leg 33being located along the right hand side of the lever I. Thus the lever Iextends between the legs of the latch J. lThe front leg 33 of the latchis yieldably retained in engagement with the roller 3E by a coil spring3E having its rear end connected to the rear leg 3i of the latch and itsfront end anchored to the lli) Til

frame wall ill.

Extending forwardly from the front leg 33 is an arm 3"! having a notchedfront end 38 adapted for cooperation with a stud 39 which iseccentrically mounted for adjustment on the shift lever H.

Secured to the rock shaft I3 by a screw 4l) is a forwardly extendingrock arm 4| having an oiset or laterally extending arm 42 at its forwardend which underlies the release key lever F. A vertically disposed screw33 is threaded downwardly into the arm 42 and is retained in an adjustedposition by a lock nut fle. The rounded head l5 of the screw is disposedunder the release key lever F and is normally vdisposed. in spacedrelation thereto, as shown in Figure l.

It may or may 'not be desirable to letter space the carriage when theshift lock is released. If it is not desirable, a link i6 will not beconnected to the universal bar lll, as shown in Figure l. I-iowever, ifit is desirable to letter space the platen, the link i will be connectedwith the universal bar as shown in Figure 4.

When it is desired to shift the segment D and lock the same in itsshifted position, the operator depresses the shift lock key lever I,which through the medium of the locking latch J and stud 39 depressesthe shift lever H and rocks the shaft i3, the shaft i3 in turn effectinga lowering of the segment against the tension of the spring 2B. When theshift lock key lever I has reached its lowermost position, the notch 38of the latch J will cooperate with the stud 39 of the shift lever H andlock the latter against upward movement.

When it is desired to release the shift lock, the operator taps thefinger piece Eia of the release key lever F by a staccato touch whichcauses the pivoted arm or element E to swing upwardly to the positionshown in dotted lines in Figure 1, the downward movement of the lever FLinder the inger piece 3) of the shift lock..

the iniiuence of the staccato touch terminating just short of the head65 of the screw i3 which is carried by the rock arm til. The momentum ofthe pivoted arm E will cause the latter to move rearwardly beyond itsdotted line position and thereby further move the release lever F intocontact with said screw and swing the rock arm li downwardly. Thisdownward movement or the rock arm is very slight, but the movement issufcient to rock the shaft 3 and the shift lever H to thereby releasethe latch J from its engagement with said shift lever.

As previously stated, the head i5 of the screw i3 is normally spacedbelow the special key lever F, and the spacing distance is such that thelever vwill not contactl the screw head until said lever has nearlyreached the limit of its depression stroke whereby the rock arm il willbe swung downwardly a very short distance to eifect a release of thelecki ng latch J As a result of this spacing, it will be apparent thatthe special release key lever F will require no more pressure to depressthe same than the touch required on any of the usual key levers F; thatthe special `type bar or arm E will be swung upwardly during the timethe special lever F is moving downwardly to contact the head of thescrew fla'; that the upward movement of said special type bar or arm Eis an accelerated movement and consequently the momentum attainedthereby during the last part of said movement will function to effect arelease of the shift lock.

It will, therefore, be seen that the shift lock release is effected by atouch comparable with the touch employed in connection with the usualkey levers F.

It is, of course, to be understood that the details of structure andarrangement of parts may be variously changed and modied withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of my invention.

I claim:

l. In a typewriting machine, the combination with a cylinder element anda segment element; of means for shifting one of said elements; means forreleasably locking the shiftable element in its shifted position; andmeans for releasing said locking means including a key lever, a pivotedarm, and connections between said key lever and said pivoted arm wherebythe momentum of said arm subsequent tothe initial depression of the keylever will farther depress the key lever and effect the release of saidlocking means.

2. In a typewriting machine, the combination with a cylinder element anda segment element; of means for shifting one of said elements; means forreleasably locking the shiftable element in its shifted position; andmeans for releasing said locking means including a release key lever, anarm pivoted on the segment and operatively connected to the releaselever, and devices interposed between said release key lever and saidlocking means for releasing the latter, said devices becoming effectiveby the momentum of said pivoted arm subsequent to the initial depressionof said release key lever.

3. In a typewriting machine, the combination with a cylinder element anda segment element; of means for shifting one of said elements; means forreleasably locking the shiftable element in its shifted position; andmeans for releasing said locking means including a release key lever, anarm pivoted on the segment, a front link, a link connecting the frontlink and the release key lever, a link connection between the front linkCil and the heel of the pivoted arm, and devices interposed between saidrelease key lever and said locking means for releasing the latter, saiddevices becoming effective by the momentum of said pivoted armsubsequent to the initial depression of said release key lever.

4. In a typevvriting machine, the combination with a cylinder elementand a segment element; of means for shifting onev of said elements, andfor releasably locking the shiftable element in its shifted positionincluding a transverse shaft l0- cated in front of the segment, a shiftkey lever iixed to said shaft and operatively connected to saidshiftable element, a shift lever fixed to said shaft, a shift lock leverfulcrumed on said shaft, a latch cooperable with the shift lever and theshift lock lever to lock the element in its shifted position; a rock armfixed to said shaft; and means for releasing said locking meansincluding a key lever, a pivoted arm, and connections between key leverand said pivoted arm Whereby the momentum of said arm subsequent to theinitial depression of the key lever will farther depress the key leverand effect the release of said locking means.

5. 1n a typewriting machine, the combination with a cylinder element anda segment element; of means for shifting one of said elements and forreleasably locking the shiftable element in its shifted positionincluding a transverse shaft lo cated in front of the segment, a shiftkey lever fixed to said shaft and operatively connected to saidshiftable element, a shift lever fixed to said shaft, a shift lock leverfulcrumed on said shaft, a latch cooperable with the shift lever and theshift lock lever to lock the element in its shifted position; a rock armfixed to said shaft; a vertically adjustable element mounted on saidrock arm; and means for releasing said locking means including a keylever located above and in spaced relation to said adjustable element, apivoted arm, and connections between said key lever and said pivoted armwhereby the momentum of said arm subsequent to the initial depression ofthe key lever will farther depress the key lever and effect the releaseof said locking means.

6. In a typewriting machine, the combination with a cylinder element anda segment element; of a plurality of type bars pivoted on said segmentelement; means for actuating said type bars including key levers, meansincluding a shift key lever located at one side of the type-baractuating key levers for vertically shifting one of said elements; meansfor releasably locking the shiftable element in its shifted position;and means for releasing said locking means including a release keylever, a pivoted arm, and connections between said release key lever andsaid pivoted arm whereby t -e momentum of said arm subsequent to theinitial depression of the release key lever will farther depress therelease key lever and effect the release of said locking means, saidrelease key lever being located intermediate said type-bar actuating keylevers.

7. n a typo-writing machine, the combination. with a cylinder elementand a segment element; of means for shifting one of said elements; meansfor releasablyrlocking the shiftable element in its shifted position;and means for releasing said locking means including a key lever, amovable weighted element, and connections between said key lever andsaid weighted element whereby the momentum of said weighted elementsubsequent to the initial depression of the key lever will fartherdepress the key lever and effect the release of said locking means.

GEORGE F. HANDLEY.

